Another year, and another creative strain name bites the dust do to what can only be perceived as sensitive egos and overzealous insecurity.
California-based French Laundry Restaurant Corporation, who owns the trademark for “French Laundry” because of its “three-Michelin-starred” fine dining restaurant sent a big bad cease and desist to Maven Genetics, also of California.
There’s been a lot of conversation about this topic as it relates to Maven but this also isn’t the first such case where we’ve seen big corporations go after craft cannabis brands over copyright claims.
What Is “French Laundry” aka FKAFL?
Maven Genetics claim the name simply describes the strains genetic lineage, being a cross of LA Rouge and The Soap. It’s completely understandable that an association between red, red wine, and soap, could, understandably, conjure such a name.
The strain found commercial success, winning accolades at Californias “Za-llympics 2023” with a taste reminiscent of “soap, rose wine, citrus, cheese, sweet and savory”, according to Dr. Strainlove of Head Magazine.
Alas FLR Corp, or perhaps the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group (who knows for sure) saw it otherwise, apparently feeling attacked enough, to send a cease and desist to Maven Genetics. Presumably not wanting an expensive legal battle on their hands Maven apologized and changed the name of their strain to “FKAFL”, an acronym for “formerly known as French Laundry”.
Maven Genetics Side of the Story
Maven’s official statement:
“It is with a blend of pride and a touch of regret that Maven announces a significant development regarding one of our most celebrated strains, French Laundry.
As the year draws to a close, we face a challenging twist. Maven has received a cease and desist letter from the renowned Napa restaurant French Laundry, citing trademark infringement issues.
Our strain’s name, meant as a playful tribute to its parent genetics, was never intended to infringe on any trademark. However, to avoid potential legal entanglements, we have made the difficult decision to retire the French Laundry name from our product lineup.”
Why Strain Name Lawsuits Kinda Suck
Personally I get pretty bummed everytime I see news like this, which seems to be occurring with increased frequency as I’ve covered before regarding Zkittles and Oreos strains, which suffered identical death-by-lawyer fates.
While the Zkittlez and Oreos strains themselves were more obviously named after the properties of a trademarked product, this French Laundry claim seems to be more of a stretch to me.
Are the French in France not able to call their laundry “French” because this common everyday bedding object found in everyone’s house is copyright protected by a snooty high end restaurant in Los Angeles?
Seems a bit unwarranted, but what do I know, I’m not a lawyer and this isn’t legal advice.
Thankfully Maven seem to be takin the high road (figuratively speaking here) by taking the restaurants offense as a compliment with Maven’s Brand Director (Miguel De Vivo) saying in an interview with Forbes that:
“The normalizing aspect of it, the fact that we’re garnering attention from the culinary world at such a level, for us, it’s surprising that they noticed. Being in the same realm is exciting”.
I wish I could share Miguel’s optimism. I suspect what more than likely happened is a legal office caught wind of the name and smelled money so they leapt to action as frogs are known to do.
What Does the Future Hold?
Whatever the case may be, I’m predicting we will continue to see the recreational cannabis market targeted simply because of how federal prohibition keeps operating companies small and compartmentalized, making unified defense of IP extremely challenging.
What a lot of these mega corps don’t realize is by throwing such a fuss they ultimately end up spiking interest in the offending cannabis genetics. I personally can’t wait to get my hands on some French Lau…er, FKAFL in the near future, it sounds great!
What are your thoughts? Do you think big corporations have legitimate concern over consumer confusion or is it all about money, or some combination of the two?
Let us know in the comments how you feel!
